Colorado Springs native among first female Eagle Scouts in US
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Colorado Springs teen is opening doors and breaking the glass ceiling for many young women hoping to be an Eagle Scout one day.
Sierra Dooley is among hundreds of young women who will make up the Inaugural Class of Female Eagle Scouts in the United States, and she is the only one from the Pikes Peak Council.
Growing up in southern Colorado, Sierra Dooley loves the outdoors.
"I love hiking, camping and backpacking and I am currently in three venturing crews which is a co-ed program of the Boy Scouts of America," said Dooley.
While she could have joined the girl scouts instead, the boy scouts is a family tradition.
"I was inspired to join scouting by my brother, he was a cub scout when I was in elementary school and I would always tag along to their meetings, my dad was a cub master so I was always in the back baking cookies, watching the younger siblings always wanting to do what the cub scouts were doing," said Dooley.
She went after this goal once the boy scouts allowed girls to earn the rank of eagle scout in 2019.
"There was a placard on my high school wall that I looked at every day, ever since I was a freshman and I decided I wanted to be the only female name since there were only boys."
Her Eagle Project was an environmental trail reclamation on water drainage at Manitou Springs High School.
"They decided that our school would be better off having that trail removed as it allowed them to control the traffic down to our sports arena and sports fields," said Dooley.
Her goal was to help prevent the possible erosion of this hill. Overall, the project took her three months of planning and about four days to complete because of the certain challenges the pandemic presented.
"Limiting the number of volunteers, I was not able to bring 60-70 scouts at one time, I had to space out in shifts which prolonged my project and limited the number of things we could get done," added Dooley.
However, like the trailblazer she is, she got the job done.
There are now fences at both ends of the trail used to mitigate the foot traffic. Now, Dooley hopes to inspire the next generation of young women aspiring to be eagle scouts.
